Pontiac showed Thursday night it does not have a glass jaw. The Indians took Prairie Central’s best punch of the night and remained standing for a 55-41 Corn Belt Conference girls’ basketball victory at PTHS.

“That was key,” PTHS head coach Mindy Whitehouse said. “I told (the girls) at halftime that we didn’t have to do anything; that they had to make changes. They made the changes and we responded.”

The Indians took that haymaker from the Hawks in the third quarter. Leading 24-12 at the intermission, Pontiac appeared to be in the driver’s seat until Prairie Central started landing its swings.

Gabby Weber ignited an 11-point run with a 15-footer with 6:46 left in the third quarter. The Hawks then got baskets from Kiana Coomber and Emily Shiflett in cutting the deficit to 24-18.

Pontiac turned the ball over after Shiflett’s hoop and Jordyn Weber connected on a 3-pointer from the left corner. Another PTHS turnover led to a Gabby Weber fastbreak score that made it 24-23 with 4:27 left in the period.

The Hawks had their chances to take the lead but went cold. PC did not score the rest of the quarter.

“We had a good run (but) we have to figure out to do it for 32 minutes,” PC head coach Tom Garriott said.

The Indians managed just one basket in the period, a nice spinning move by Kelsey Walsberg in the paint that made it 26-23.

“They play pretty good defense,” Garriott said. “We did too, for a stretch, but you can’t do it for just a stretch. You have to do it for 32 minutes.”

It was Walsberg who shook the Indians out of their funk. The sharpshooting southpaw buried two 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter as the Tribe began to rebuild its advantage.

Walsberg had 13 points in the final frame and finished with a game-high 20 in leading the PTHS charge. Pontiac scored 29 points in the last stanza.

Ashley Harfst and Kaela Hodges added three-point plays as the Indians regained a double-digit lead, at 38-27, with nearly 5 1/2 minutes left in the game.

“My key players knew tonight they were going to need to take over the fourth quarter and you saw the key players step up,” Whitehouse said.

Jordyn Weber hit another triple with 4:07 remaining to cut the margin to eight, at 40-32. That was the closest Prairie Central got the rest of the night.

Page 2 of 2 - Pontiac’s ability to bounce back from the PC punch was due in large part to remaining active at both ends of the floor. The offense made 8 of 9 free throws in the final minute and the defense did not allow the Hawks to go on any runs.

There were three lead changes in the game — all coming in the first two minutes of the game. Gabby Weber opened the scoring with a basket in transition, and then Walsberg hit a 3-pointer to make it 3-2.

Weber scored on a put-back at the other end to put PC on top 4-3. But Harfst answered with a pair of free throws 12 seconds later to give the Tribe a 5-4 edge.

Harfst’s tosses started an eight-point run that gave the Indians an 11-4 lead.

A nine-point spurt began with a Hodges basket in transition at the end of the first quarter and concluded with a Maddie Dohleman deuce 1:13 into the second to push the PTHS advantage to 20-8.

Pontiac outscored the Hawks 11-4 in the second period to hold a 12-point lead at the intermission.

Hodges added 11 points and Harfst had 10 for the Indians. Dohleman threw in 6 points and Rachael Fearman had 4 markers.

“The difference in the game was having five playing on the court at all times,” Whitehouse said. “That’s what’s going to win the big games.”